


Take me home

by Sylvalum



Category: Astral Chain (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Sensory Deprivation, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Gen, Kidnapping, M/M, Pining, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22117594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylvalum/pseuds/Sylvalum
Summary: “So you’re going off to rescue Hal,” Akira says. Her face is determined. She’s always been the type to get really determined really fast, fighting on her twin's behalf in middle school, before -before.Now she says, “Then I’m coming with you.”
Relationships: Akira Howard & Player Character, Hal/Player Character (Astral Chain)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 36





	1. Savior

**Author's Note:**

> i think i'll get the 2nd part up tomorrow, but anyways!! more hazure (hal/player) bc i love them a lot. thanks.  
player's name is Alex here - i hc that max asked around HQ/his friends for name suggestions after adopting the twins.

It’s been a couple of months of work, restoration, rebuilding and chimera extermination. It’s been months, and life’s gone on, and if what happened on that roof at the ARI still looms larger than anything else in his mind, hurts like a freshly formed bruise every time he wakes up in the middle of the night - that’s Alex’s own business. Besides, Akira still sleeps in the bed across from his and would hear him if he cried, so he doesn’t.

She’s still here. He’ll have to live with the guilt of killing her forever, yet she’s right here, gloriously mundanely alive. Yesterday just the sight of her making her stupid morning toast (burnt bread, too much butter, exactly one slice of ham) was almost too much to bear, but Alex is learning to cope.

He accepted that dad’s gone, so he can learn to accept this new reality too.

After another busy day at the new Neuron - first out in the field chasing down a couple of errant chimeras, then filing reports for Olive, and finally helping Marie with a stocking problem - and Alex and Akira are riding the subway together, going back home to their apartment.

They never had the time to move out, before.

And now… all of dad’s stuff is still there. So are they. Moving out just wouldn’t…

Alex and Akira have almost agreed upon it without even mentioning it; they’ll stay at the old apartment. Together. And maybe someday, Alex can start to sort dad’s things away, or bring himself into telling Akira they should do it together.

They get off the subway with a small flood of others, but the crowd quickly pours off onto side streets and into bars and apartment buildings, leaving Alex and Akira to walk the streets in silence. 

They share a lot of silences nowadays.

Their apartment building looming on the other side of the street is a comforting familiar sight, more familiar than even Neuron HQ or the subway ride to get here - _ of course. _ It’s home. Or at least it was. Jury’s out on whether their apartment’s soul died along with dad, or whether maybe it never existed anyway. Akira enters in the door code and Alex hails the elevator, and they both get in.

Up they go.

In the corridor outside is Milky, the cat, and Akira lets out an exclamation before quickly grabbing it. Milky got ill, so they brought it to their apartment to recover, but the cat keeps getting out while they’re at work. Yesterday, old Mizuko Březinová in the apartment across from theirs knocked on their door with Milky in her arms at like 11 at night, after Akira and Alex had already searched through nearly the whole flat in effort to find their lost little cretin.

Alex gets out his cardkey, swipes their door open, and then promptly flinches back and throws up his arm, a dumb instinct considering he left his Legatus at HQ. “You!” he exclaims, stepping back into a defensive stance.

Kyle Merkulov, with two of his Hermits beside him, waves unbothered from where he’s lounging on their sofa in his paint-splattered tracksuit. “Can you not stand out there and yell,” he says. “You’re being rude to the neighbours.”

“Who the hell is that?” Akira demands from behind Alex, holding a squirming Milky tight in her arms. Her expression is hostile but assessing.

“Leader of the _ Hermits,” _ Alex replies, turning back to face Kyle. “They’re a gang from Zone 09. His name’s Kyle and he’s a menace.”

Kyle’s stupid emoji mask changes to an offended expression, but surprisingly, he doesn’t bite back. “Either way,” he says, slowly. “Our past aside… Alexander Howard. I need your help.”

Alex regards Kyle for a long moment, when he also takes great care not to let his own expression even twitch. Another problem for Alex to pick and prod at instead of sleeping, maybe. Or it’s just some fucking drug dealer again. He asks coldly, “With what?”

Akira’s eyes are fixated on Kyle. Milky meows plaintively.

Kyle ignores both sister and cat. “Hal’s gone,” he says grimly. “You know how he came and started working with us in Sector V - co-leading, hacking, his magic thing. All done with his drone, of course. But a few days ago his drone shut off with no warning and since then Hal hasn’t responded to any messages, calls, nothing.”

Alex feels the chill from his spine crawl into his gut and start to chew.

“Chimeras?” he asks with numb lips.

“No, no,” Kyle says. His mask’s expression flips to anger. “We got a note. Rival gang did it - kidnapped him. They’re complete freaks, call themselves the ‘Children of Noah’ or some other bull. They’re all centrals and hate us.”

Akira looks at Alex - he can feel it, knows it without turning his head. Nothing of what Kyle’s said has been good, but _ that... _

“Where are they based from?” Action. That’s what he needs to go, get out there and investigate and find them, _ end _ them. _ Find Hal. _Slowly and then all in a snap Alex’s dread turns to fury, an emotion he thought he’d never see again. He says, low, “Where can I find them?”

“I knew he’d help!” Kyle exclaims to one of the Hermits, maybe, and then he turns back to face Alex and Akira. “We know they’ve got a base in one of the Zones nextdoor to 09. I’ll get you a map if you’ll get Hal back.”

“Give me the note too,” Alex says._ Of course _he’s getting Hal back.

“Done.”

“So you’re going off to rescue Hal,” Akira says. Her face is determined. She’s always been the type to get really determined really fast, fighting on Alex’s behalf in middle school, before - _ before. _ Now she says, “Then I’m coming with you.”

“Akira…” Alex says, a half-hearted protest born of so many days passing each other in silence and desperately trying to look at Akira’s face without having to remember the arrow ripping through her body. Without looking at her and trying to find some tiny thing that’d make her different from _ Akira, _ and always finding nothing. Because she’s Akira - even if she isn’t Alex’s twin anymore.

_ “Alex,” _ Akira whines right back at him. “I’m not letting you go off _ alone. _ And you’re not the only one who’s in debt to Hal, you know. He saved you, so I owe him - a lot.”

“Why not?” Kyle pitches in, his mask only expressing that evil grin it usually sports. “The more the merrier, right, Howard?”

Alex can’t exactly turn Akira away. And - Hal might need all the help he can get. There’s no way Alex would let some petty nightmares or his own feelings get in the way of doing his duty right. Still, it’s with a sigh that he says, “Alright, Akira. Let’s get Hal back. Together.”

* * *

Alex never really liked drones, before he met Hal. Drones break down all too often, and one of his and Akira’s first cases as rookies was about a suspected arson - which turned out to just be a drone that had malfunctioned near too much paper and triggered the fire that then burnt down five storeys of a skyscraper before the firefighters got the flames under control. Hal’s drone always had such a lot of personality though - even without knowing what kind of pilot was behind it.

And then the pilot turned out to be Hal, who’s... smart and brave and a bit dorky, and kind in his own clumsy way, and surprisingly nice to get to know - or well, he _ was. _ Alex hasn’t really heard from him in months, and though Alex often felt disappointed about that - there were many other things Alex felt disappointed about other than Hal. He’d assumed that Hal was fine, just doing his own thing in Zone 09, and then Alex had shrugged and tried to- just not think about Hal anymore.

Hal could call Alex himself if he wanted to talk, right. Right.

Besides, Hal had been with them in the ARI.

Better to not have him around to hover around Alex and be stupidly_ concerned _about him like Olive, and Brenda, and Marie, and Jin, and Alicia-

Even though Alex missed him. But, again, Alex is missing a lot of people. And life goes on, Hal and Alex aren’t speaking anymore but okay, fine, have it your way. At least Hal was safe, and probably happy enough.

-Hal getting kidnapped has destroyed the status quo.

They sneak away in the evening the next day, having already left work but bought their equipment with them - since Olive hadn’t objected, and having a Legion with you usually stacks the odds in your favour. Akira has one of the new Legions everyone at HQ has nowadays - with a blue core, like Alex’s.

Kyle’s map tells them that the base of the ‘Children of Noah’ is hugging the Wall to Zone 09, but on the opposite side of where Harmony Square is snug up to the Walls. They go there by the subway, dressed in civvies, flashing their police IDs only once when they’re stopped by a security control thanks to their concealed x-batons. They get by with no problem after proving they’re part of Neuron.

“It feels like we’re here on an undercover assignment,” Akira jokes dryly.

Alex makes a noncommittal noise in response.

Once they’re in the right Zone, it doesn’t take long to get to the Wall. After that it’s a short walk along it before they’re close enough to realise that their enemies have security guards and look-out drones around. 

They slow down, creeping as close as Alex dares to before he stops. Akira halts when he does, and looks at him. They’re not going to get in as it is. Too many guards. The building is right by the Wall - built as if it’s a part of it, using the same cement blocks and thick walls with steel doors. It’s an imposing, but very low, flat building. Alex suspects it’s got a big basement, though - or some kind of tunnels into the Wall. He’s been inside the containment walls before, after all.

“Do you have a plan?” Akira asks, a bit impatient but waiting for his input. Because that’s how they work. Together.

Alex clears his throat and says, “They have a lot of security. Maybe we could sneak in _ somehow _ but… I doubt that.”

“Yeah, since we don’t have any building plans either,” Akira agrees. “That’d make it pretty difficult. If one us acted as a distraction though…”

“I’ll do it,” Alex says. “Then you can sneak inside and find Hal.”

“You just hate having to use stealth,” Akira grumbles, but Alex can tell she isn’t really annoyed. She’s better at playing spy than him and she _ knows _ it; they’ve always competed about weird things just between the two of them, and this has always been a score for her. “Alright. Take care.”

Alex nods awkwardly, and Akira fades back into the shadows as he gets out his x-baton and Legatus and starts boldly marching toward the Noah base. It’s barely ten seconds before the look-outs notice him, and just moments after that they realise he’s there for_ them. _

Two of the guards start rushing up to him while a third starts calling someone, and he launches his Legion at them and snatches away their comm before they can finish. 

His mission right now is gloriously clear-cut, easy and straightforward; it’s not to survive, or get through any of that finnicky stealth bullshit he hates. All he’s got to do is cause as big a ruckus as possible. Keep all the eyes on him to make sure none is on Akira.

He sends his Legion after one of the guards rushing at him, just the one, and when they fall with a scream Alex lunges forward to meet the other one himself – and just as expected, more guards are starting to approach. Somebody sends up a gunner drone, that Alex then immediately commands his Arrow Legion to shoot down.

The rest of the Children of Noah? Alex lets them come.

For as long as the battle rages, Alex doesn’t think about Hal, or Akira, or dad – he just picks out his next target, sends his Legion after them, and evades and parries whatever it is the Children of Noah send at him. Drones he shoots down as soon as they’re sent up, while the humans he mostly doesn’t fight, except for the particularly fierce ones – those he shoots in some non-lethal body part to get them off the field.

He destroys all the comms he comes over too, and the guards who seem to be able to see his Legion, he also tries to take down quick. He holds out for some time, he doesn’t know how long just hopes that it’s _ enough, _ but soon he’s retreating step after step coming up with his back against a wall, and there’s too many drones in the air for him to take out and not leave himself wide open in the process.

He bumps against the wall. There are five security guards in various states of anger and fear training their guns on him. Akira’s old Legion hisses from above him, keeps switching its target without being able to decide on whom to fire.

Alex drops his x-baton and slowly raises his hands, his Legion floating down by his side, reluctantly going back to his Legatus.

_ It’s up to you now, Akira. _

“Finally,” one of the guards say, and another quickly elbows him.

A scientist in the back – white-robed, masked – says loudly, “You two, cuff him. Take his weapons. Don’t let him out of your sight for even a second. Guns trained on him. _ Clear?” _

“Yes, ma’am,” both of the guards snap, and Alex lets himself be cuffed while taking a good long look at the scientist. Likely a former ARI employee – Yoseph Calvert’s ARI, that is. They take his IRIS before he has the time to scan her, but he’s pretty sure her name, blood type and measurements wouldn’t have told him shit anyway. And Alex _ did _ manage to solve cases before he got his IRIS, or Legatus – he’s plenty dangerous even without his equipment.

And besides – Akira’s coming.

* * *

After the sudden and tragic collapse of the former Hermit Base of Sector V, Hal Clark had his arms and legs replaced by prosthetics. His torso fortunately wasn’t hit by any heavy rubble for the most part, which is about the only reason he survived. But his neck and face didn’t get quite so lucky. Intricate metalwork coats the back of his neck in place of skin, with parts of his spine completely restructured with metal even climbing up the sides of his face. Sector V’s only surgeon managed to save his throat and nerve system - partly by replacing it with tech - and even grafted some new skin for his face – but his eyes couldn’t be saved.

On the whole though, Hal’s pretty content with his interface units. They look vaguely enough like eyes to the casual observer – yellow iris, grey sclera – when he isn’t doing too much work with them, and for when he is, he’s got that blindfold.

Katja – one of the women staying at his hideout; seller of clothes, teller of gossip – believes that the _ mask _over his eyes is what enables him to look straight through his drone’s eyes and through any camera he links himself up to. That’s close, sure, but not quite true.

It’s his _ eyes _ that link him straight to the internet, to any camera he’s got control of.

His eyes are, really, not actually eyes. He can’t actually _ see _ through them. He needs to have a camera in the room to hack into and look at its feed to be able to see a room. His drone has state of the art optical units, as good as Hal could possibly make them, and functionally, his drone’s eyes are Hal’s eyes to the world. And it works! Hal has installed a bunch of cameras for the place he’s actually staying at most of the time, which lets him see the room from lots of different viewpoints normal humans usually don’t get – like from above the fridge – and a few cameras at the height where his eyes would really be, so he can perceive his surroundings in the same way he used to before.

It’s good. It’s perfectly fine, and really, Hal loves being able to see directly into the internet.

Whoever assholes kidnapped him are, of course, not nearly as considerate.

They’ve dragged him through their base blind, forced him to eat some rations at some point - questioned him, probably. Hal doesn’t think he told them anything important.

It’s been days, and Hal still hasn’t been able to get through their firewalls, or get any connections at all – he blames it on whatever drugs they’ve put him on. In fact, he can’t actually be sure that it’s really _ been _ days – but c’mon, it feels like it’s been an eternity, it has to have been at least a _ few _ days, right? Not that that’s a good thing. But still.

There’s exactly one camera he’s been able to hack into, and that one’s rigged up above a window on maybe the fourth floor, he’s pretty sure. From it he can see a back alley, a building with dead windows, a sliver of a Wall, and a large chunk of sky which cycles through cloudy, sunset, night, pitch-black, windy, and once even a sunny day.

His cell – room? Cupboard? – on the other hand… well, there’s a cot there. Maybe a window, or it could’ve been a vent. Bare floors and walls. A door. There’s no camera – or if there _ is, _ it’s deep behind those firewalls, and _ Hal _ can’t see through it.

The thought that someone _ else _ can is very much the opposite of comforting.

He doesn’t know what they want from him. He doesn’t know who they are. He doesn’t even know where he _ is, _ or how to possibly get out, or what the fuck _ this place even looks like. _

He sat down on the cot at some point and hasn’t been able to make himself get up again since then, sitting curled up as tight as he can, and he’s just been – been watching the sky from the camera on the fourth floor. Watching the clouds chase and swirl over the sky – the storms of the Pacific Ocean getting neutralised by the climate control systems before they can wreck the Ark. Watching the sun, its fall and the darkness following it, and wondering whether he’ll see the dawn, too.

* * *

When Akira woke up in the ARI after the case in Ark Mall she was lying in a pod surrounded by some weird red slime, and Brenda and Olive and Jin and Alicia had all been there watching over her. She knew something was wrong instantly – where the fuck was Alex? – but whatever nightmare scenarios she could’ve played up for herself in that heartbeat, none of them would’ve come even close to the truth.

No one ever exactly told her about it outright, but you know, she _ does _ read the case reports sometimes.

So either she was out cold for several weeks, or - she might be a clone of herself. She’s not the – the original Akira.

But she’s still the only Akira left, she’s the _ only one _ – and she _ is _ Alex’s sister. The only identity she’s got is Akira Howard, twin sister of Alexander, daughter of Maximilian, and an officer part of the Neuron Task Force made to protect the Ark. She loves cats and rock music and all kinds of chocolate dessert and playing games on max difficulty to spite Alex, and she wants to save the world just like dad, and she’s going to have Alex’s back until the day she dies.

She thinks the case is closed: she’s Akira. She is because she _ says _ so.

She’s just waiting on Alex to- to-

Get it, maybe. Come to terms with it. She’s still mourning dad, so – you know, she’s not going to start arguing with the only family’s she’s got left. She knows they’ll be okay again anyway, someday. They will.

-and part of that is thanks to Hal. He’s a dork and a techie and kinda shady – but he saved her twin’s life, _ and _ he let them stay at some place Alex referred to in the reports as ‘Hal’s hideout’ _ and _he apparently came with Alex and that other Akira when whatever happened at the old ARI went down, according to one throwaway line in Alex’s report before he’d stopped writing the case file altogether. So, apparently Akira owes Hal one.

And c’mon, there’s no way she’d ever let Alex do something dangerous like this on his own.

After Alex goes off to draw fire and attention from the Children of Noah, Akira scuttles. Using her IRIS she scopes out a vent above a rusty old ladder, scales the building, and enters through the ventilation system on the second floor. From there she crawls through the pipe until she comes to a removable grate, exits using it and falls to the floor inside of an empty bathroom. Her IRIS tells her there’s only one other person on this floor, in a room far away from her, so she quickly gets out of the bathroom and dashes for the stairs.

If this were anyone else she was rescuing, anyone at all from Neuron’s database, she could’ve told her IRIS to give her a route to the only biosignal matching the description in the database. But as it is, they don’t know anything at all about Hal – he _ really _ has never been to Neuron HQ in the flesh – so, Akira’s going to have to do this in the good old-fashioned way.

There are six floors, two of them basement levels. With the most people being on the lowest floor, Akira decides to head upstairs first. There’s not a lot of cameras, fortunately – and she easily avoids the few there are, using her IRIS to spot them. Third floor – no people. She peers into a few rooms and finds mostly shelves, stacks of boxes, and server banks. She uses her Legion to swipe a bit of data from there, and then carries onward.

There’s nothing on the top floor, and the biosignals there are all hostiles. No Hal. She lets them be so as to not even accidentally raise any alarms, and heads downward.

* * *

The Children of Noah throw his equipment in a room on the first floor and then force Alex down to the basement, where he struggles with three guards for a long while and breaks one of their noses before they manage to inject him with something. After that all of them shove him into another corridor and throw him in a cell, after which all of them seem assured enough that Alex can’t do shit that they all storm out and leave the cell block in total silence.

Alex gingerly sits down on the cot in his cell and stares at his boots until his head feels clear enough for him to stand up again.

Right. Akira’s on the way. For now though, he’s in a cell – the door is locked, it’s dimly lit, the corridor outside is completely empty. The silence is… _ almost _ total.

Someone’s coughing on the other side of the wall.

Alex moves over there and presses up close to the wall, and – up there – is a small window. Alex reaches up and digs his nails in, then pries it open.

The human noises abruptly stop.

“Hey,” Alex says. “Can you hear me?”

When the voice speaks up, it’s quiet and disbelieving and at first Alex almost doesn’t recognise it, despite knowing who its owner most likely is. He says, “…Alex?” And then Hal says, louder, more affronted, “Alex! You - what are you _ doing _ here, how did you get here? You - you can’t be here! _ Why are you here!” _

“I’m here for _ you,” _ Alex exclaims right back, nearly grinning. Hal is here. Hal seems to be mostly alright. This situation is fixable. “Everything’s going to be okay, Hal.”

“You-! I - how - didn’t they d-drug you too?” Hal’s voice dies in a stutter, cracks in the middle.

Alex’s worry changes shape and dimensions, becomes a more controlled force that makes him frown, makes him listen close to Hal’s breathing in case it’ll reveal anything about his state of health. “I’m good,” Alex answers anyway, calmly. He’s got to be cool and collected, to get them safely out of here. “Drugs don’t work very well on me, ever since I fused with my Legion…”

“Oh,” Hal breathes. “That - is an interesting side-effect. I - uh… Well. How… how’d ya know I’d been-?”

“Kyle asked me to rescue you,” Alex says. 

“Oh, right. Huh. I thought he didn’t really…” Hal trails off, and for a long moment there’s only silence. Alex stands by the wall to his cell and wishes, _ yearns _ to be in the same room as Hal, to see Hal is alright. To not have this fucking cement wall between them. Eventually Hal says, “Ah, well, uh. Anyway. Um... Thanks for coming, I guess.”

His voice sounds different than over the drone. Alex does his best not to speculate on the _ why. _

“Sure,” Alex says. “Are you alright? Did they drug you?”

“Uh _ yeah _ they did, and I’m - I don’t… exactly have any chimeric blood cells to, to stop the effects.” Hal lets out a long sigh. “Hey. I’m… _ really _ glad you’re here.”

“Yeah,” Alex says. He’s missed Hal. He’s wondered about how Hal’s doing, what’s up in Zone 09, if maybe he could visit - for months, now. As long as he’s been working overtime on all the cases he managed to beg off of Olive, at times avoiding Akira and then having days when he couldn’t bear to even go on a single case without her. Coming home and remembering that dad’s gone and then crying on the sofa, only to then go on to have days when _ really, _ everything was fine.

But he’s been thinking about Hal too, and to _ now _ be only a wall apart from him - it’s making Alex feel crazier than he has in months.

“How are the Hermits doing?” he asks, not for the small talk but because he genuinely wants to know, and because he _ needs _ something to do before he starts brute-forcing the cell door open and calls too much attention to them. 

Hal takes a deep breath and then starts talking, first with cut-offs and stuttering, but then as Alex tells him to go on, _ tell me about that expansion plan you’ve been thinking of, _ Hal’s breathing slowly evens out and he starts to sound more like himself. He talks about the Hermits, and then asks Alex about how it’s going at Neuron. Alex tells him how the others are doing, and even manages to say a little about himself and Akira before he feels like he can’t go on anymore.

Worry is gnawing at all his nerves and he doesn’t want to waste time talking about himself, not now. He wants to- “You could call sometime,” Alex says. “Or hack my phone to leave a message. I’m not picky.”

Hal answers after a moment, hesitatingly. “You’d… like that?”

“Yes. Hal, I didn’t hear from you for _ months. _ Aren’t we friends? Of course I’d like it if you called me now and then.”

All the people who turned their backs on Neuron with Alex, all the people who really had his back then - they’re all busy building up their own kingdoms again: Brenda with her new ARI, Olive as the unofficial commander of Neuron, and Hal and his Hermits. But at least Alex can see Olive and Brenda back at HQ, can hang out with them on his breaks if he wants to. Would _ know it _ if they were in distress.

-and meanwhile, Hal’s drone never once left the exclusion zone again after that night at the ARI.

People have frequently told Alex that he speaks too little, and that when he _ does _ talk, he’s too blunt. To this day, Alex still hasn’t changed. “I missed you,” he tells Hal, and is met by a long stretch of silence.

“I…” Hal begins, but then there’s a noise from the corridor and he clams up.

Alex turns around, just in time as the door slides open to reveal Akira. “Is Hal nearby?” she asks, first,

“On the other side of that wall,” Alex says, nodding to the wall in question. “It’s okay, Hal! Akira will get us out of here.”

“So _ this _ was your plan…?” Hal grumbles, then quietens alarmingly once again. Alex lets Akira check him over for injuries quickly then does the same with her, and after that they make their way through the corridor and around to Hal’s side, avoiding the cameras as they go.

“Lucky for you, Alex,” Akira says. “The cells aren’t bugged and there’s only cameras out in the corridor, so we’re in the clear.”

Alex gets to Hal’s door, then steps aside to let Akira unleash her Sword Legion to cut open the lock. He murmurs, “Thanks,” then enters the cell, which is pretty much an identical copy of his own. Hal’s sitting on the cot with his legs pulled up to his chest and - that’s the first recalibration Alex does, because both Hal’s arms and legs are prosthetics. He hadn’t been sure before, what with the grainy hologram, but now… it’s obvious.

Then Alex remembers the fact that Hal’s never _ actually _ visited Neuron HQ, or met any of them in the flesh, and stops awkwardly inside of the doorway. “Hal?” he tries. “I’m back with Akira now. Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Hal says, but doesn’t move.

Alex gingerly approaches, sees Akira looking at Hal with a worried frown, and stops in front of Hal.

“We have to get out of here quick,” Akira tells him. “Can you walk, Hal?”

“Yeah,” he says, voice sounding odd, and Alex stands frozen in indecision. “I can walk.” Hal makes a sound that might be a short panicked chuckle, and adds, “I just can’t _ see.” _

“What?” Akira says.

“I can’t see,” Hal repeats. “Their f-f-firewalls - or maybe it’s the drugs, but I can’t - can’t get through, and I - I - there’s no cameras for me to-”

Alex makes his mouth move. “Your eyes... aren’t eyes? You need the drone to see?”

Hal nods jerkily, then looks - moves his head so Alex can see his eyes. They’re yellow and unfocused and the longer he gazes into them the less they look like real organic human eyes. But somehow they fit into the rest of Hal’s looks - the mechanical limbs, the metal wrapping around his neck, his ashy blond hair. Then Alex’s heart misses a beat before coming back painfully loud as he realises_ this _ is really the first time he’s really met Hal, been in the same space as him, seen his face, and he’s _ cute- _ and it’s the worst possible time and place for this shock of feelings, Jesus.

They need to leave this place, _ quickly, _ before anyone can catch all three of them, and Hal’s drugged and might be in pain or having some kind of anxiety attack - Alex _ needs _to act.

“Can I help you up?” he asks. “You can - lean on me until we’re out of this building.”

“We’ll get you out,” Akira says with burning intensity. “I promise.”

“Yeah.” Hal swallows. “I know.” He takes a deep breath, and uncurls. “Alright. Okay. You can… uh...”

Alex gently puts his arm around Hal’s shoulders, and Hal slides off the cot and stands up, latching onto Alex’s arm. “You’re doing great,” Alex murmurs. “Soon we’ll be out of here.”

“Right,” Akira says from the door. “Alex, we’ll need to find your gear before we leave. And Hal - do you have anything here that you need retrieved?”

“No,” he mumbles. His fringe is falling over his face and Alex fiercely fights off the urge to tuck his hair behind his ears because good _ god. _

“I know where they threw my x-baton and Legatus,” Alex offers.

“Brilliant,” Akira says, holding her own baton ready. “Then let’s move.”


	2. The Answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here it is!!

Up close, Alex smells like smog and grease and sweat, and something citrusy that must be his shampoo brand, Hal thinks. He smells like _ the outside world, _ like Central City. But Hal can only see the night sky through his one available camera, dark and starless like all the nights on the Ark. In the old world there used to be rural places where you could see the stars - Hal’s read about that, but couldn’t imagine a sky without light pollution.

Every step he takes nearly gives him vertigo - he’s used to moving in patterns that the input his brain gets from his ‘eyes’ can’t comprehend, but this time it’s really bad. 

Eventually he pulls back from the camera, akin to closing his eyes, and just focuses on moving, on where he’s holding onto Alex. It’s embarrassing - it’s pretty terribly uncomfortably _ mortifying, _ actually, but what can he do? Anything’s better than being locked up in that cell, and Alex is… nice. Kind. He’s straight-forward, no-nonsense, blunt - but he’s always been gentle enough with Hal.

It is actually painfully embarrassing how much Hal would like to do this whole ‘clinging onto each other thing’ again, but like, under happier circumstances.

When he can see again.

Soon the whole shock of being out and about _ for real _ will probably hit Hal, but right now he’s too dizzy and drugged up to care at all. Let it happen. Who cares. Hal feels terrible enough already, what’s one more anxiety problem gonna do, huh?

Alex and Akira find the room where Alex’s equipment was thrown, and Alex withdraws a little so he can strap on his belt and holsters and Legatus again. Then he comes right back, letting Hal lean on him again which - Hal indeed does do. 

Then Alex pulls the both of them over against some kind of wall, whispers, “Akira saw some guards; she went ahead to take them out.” and then the both of them just crouch there, pressed up together, and Hal feels his heart beat and beat and wonders absently whether it’s from terror or whether it’s because Alex is so close and still and _ here. _

_ -Or _ it could be something else entirely, as Hal realises after he nearly falls over when he attempts to stand up again.

“Hal?” Alex says, above him. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

What organic skin Hal has left feels cold and clammy, and to no avail he sends queries about nearby networks, drones, anything. There’s still only firewalls. “Feel like - I’m boutta throw up. Maybe. Ugh…”

There’s a silence - Hal doesn’t know how long.

Then Akira says, “We still don’t have any signal, so I can’t request any backup. But we’re almost out, guys. Just a little more.”

“There’s a ladder there,” Alex says, close to Hal’s ear. Hal tries to suppress the shiver that his breath over Hal’s skin elicits, but it’s a lost cause - Hal was shivering already, anyways. “If we climb up the Wall…”

“It’d be the fastest way out,” Akira says, decisively. “I’ll go on ahead and call for a chopper. You two can follow at your own pace.”

A trust exercise if Hal has ever heard of it: climbing up a ladder in an unfamiliar location, while not being able to see a fucking thing, with only Alex to catch him if he falls. Hal’s never been scared of heights - Uppers aren’t_ scared _ of heights, what a joke it’d be if they were - but the endless darkness, the nausea-

After Akira’s gone he stands with his hands on the ladder rung, feet on the floor, and he can’t.

“It’s okay,” Alex says, pitching his voice low and soothing. “You’ll only have to do this once and then never again. Just this one thing and then we’ll be out of here. I swear.”

Hal has never heard Alex talk as much as he’s done today. 

The panic has gotten knotted up and stuck in Hal’s throat, choking him, yet it all feels so - far-away. Absent. Theoretical. Like watching the night sky from his cell and only thinking about the lines of codes he ought to tweak back in the Hermits’ redshift detecting sensor programs.

He’d - he’d kept tabs on the Howard twins, from his place in Zone 09. Like, how could he not? And they came in to work every day and went home after sometimes a few hours of overtime, sometimes none at all, but at least they never ended up in the hospital. Akira bought lots of cat food. Alex didn’t really go outside much.

-but was that any of Hal’s business? No. No, it wasn’t. 

He could fade away to a silent observer in the sky, gone from their lives, and they wouldn’t mind - or so he thought. But now Alex told him he’s - he’s _ missed _ Hal. Like dear friends do. And it’s so _ stupid _ the things humans do when they’re hurt or scared or uncertain - and Hal’s always just been a small, flawed human himself. 

“C’mon,” Alex murmurs behind him, and the sudden clarity hits him like a migraine. “You can do this, Hal.”

“Yeah,” Hal says, unconvinced, and breathes, and reaches up with a hand and lifts his foot and then he’s _ climbing, _ and as long as he doesn’t stop he’ll survive.

When he reaches the top Akira pulls him up, and then he’s on his knees on some kind of metal platform, and then all at once he’s got internet access again. News reports and calendars - it’s only been a week, fuck - and then cameras, next, security cameras above and around him, and boom! _ Sight. _They’re crouching on one of those metal walkways that line the top of the Walls, one of the Walls to Zone 09 in fact, and next Alex drags himself up from the hole with the ladder and sits down beside Hal, looks at Hal’s face.

Hal smiles thinly at him. “I like your new tattoos,” he then blurts out, dumbly.

“Oh,” Alex says, glancing down at his arms revealed by his rolled up sleeves. On the inside of his right arm is a stylised kitten, with his sister and father’s names written around it - and on his left is a delicate winding chain ending in flowers. “It was Akira’s idea.”

Akira looks away from them, but right at one of the cameras in Hal’s control - and Hal lets it go. He doesn’t need to know this, whatever fragility Akira’s not too keen on showing. Hal’s been scraped raw and bleeding all day and he hates it, hates it - he doesn’t need to see it on Alex’s sister’s face too.

Instead Hal looks through the camera that’s aimed at the rooftops, the jagged city horizon, and there at the far edges he can see that smudge of yellow and rose. The dawn, starting first with only a lighter shade of blue on the sky until then the light comes chasing back all at once. It’s morbid to say, maybe, but the sunrises always look the most beautiful seen from up on the containment walls.

“Hey,” he says, and leans into Alex, too dizzy to sit upright on his own. “There’s the sunrise.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, softly, and Hal shuts down every camera except the one he’s watching the rosy tentative sunrise with.

“Chopper’s on the way,” Akira says beside them. “ETA five minutes.”

“Thank you,” Alex says, and then there’s a quiet - a real Ark quiet, with the far-away susurrus of traffic and music, ads, people in the distance. They watch as the sun slowly, slowly raises above the horizon, and Hal closes his eyes and drifts.

* * *

Later that afternoon, and Alex is still sitting around in the break room of Neuron HQ, doing nothing. He hasn’t looked at the new case logs, only told the few officers who asked if he wanted to spar _ no thanks, _ and when Jin and Alicia came by he just got up and fiddled with Vendor-3’s menus until they moved on. 

“Aw, you look pretty down, Alex,” Vendor-3 chirps. “What’s the matter, buddy?”

“I’m just worried about my friend,” Alex says, shifting uncomfortably. “Don’t worry about it, V.”

Vendor-3 makes a sad face and suggests, “You could try a Sweet Peach Soup! Marie says they always cheer her up.”

“Maybe,” Alex says, stalling, and likely would’ve continued to stand there awkwardly in front of Vendor-3 without ordering anything for another fifteen minutes, if it wasn’t for how Brenda then stepped into the room.

“Alex,” she says, smiling a little. “At least it’s not you who’s in the infirmary today.”

“Brenda,” Alex says, stepping away from Vendor-3. “How is he?”

“Resting. But he’s awake.” Brenda smiles kindly at him. “I told him you’ve been waiting here and… I think he’d be okay with you visiting? Just don’t… stress him out.”

“I won’t. Of course. Thank you.” Alex almost salutes Brenda but aborts the motion before he’s through with it and waves awkwardly instead, already on his way out of the break room, and Brenda’s smile widens to a grin as she waves back, calm and dignified. Alex nods, then turns and rushes through the corridor up to the elevators, slamming the button and jumping in.

Olive had the medics put up a bed inside a storage room down on the tech division’s floor, so that Hal could have a private room. Brenda’s been treating him herself and basically no one’s been allowed to see him, because - again - privacy. Alex approves whole-heartedly, of course, except for the tiny nagging furiously worried part of his brain that keeps reminding him about all his dead family members and all his missed chances.

Now he’s putting a stop to it.

At Hal’s room door he stops and knocks and waits, and Hal doesn’t answer, but the door slides open by itself so Alex takes that as his cue to come in. “Hey there,” he says, stepping inside and stopping just inside of the room.

“Hey,” Hal says, from his bed. He’s pulled up the covers and has a computer resting atop them, his hands clasped in front of them. It’s looks like he’s wearing fingerless gloves, until you see the rest of his mechanical arms and realise he’s not. His eyes are uncovered, and Alex can see the irises contracting slightly, shimmering, and small green flecks in them moving around. There’s also two cameras on the ceiling, as is usual for Neuron HQ rooms. “So. Um.”

Alex pulls out a chair from behind a stack of boxes and sits down next to Hal’s bed, watching him fiddle with the bedspread. His face isn’t as pale anymore, Alex notes. _ Good. _

“How are you feeling?” Alex asks.

“Oh, uh. Better.” Hal clasps his hands again. “Though if those Noah guys found out where I - where I was living, I really do need to relocate. Hmm. Maybe I’ll just... move to my hideout for real, or something…” He trails off. Alex finds himself, more than a little guiltily, looking at Hal’s lips.

“Mmm.” Alex says. “Did you message Kyle already?”

“Yeah,” Hal says. “I let him know everything’s alright on my end and uh… that I’ll... be back in a few days.”

The silence after his statement feels heavy and pointed and a little bit like the aftermath of a disappointing battle.

Alex clears his throat. “Back to Zone 09.”

“Yes,” Hal says, and sits completely still.

“Well,” Alex begins. “Just know that I’d like it if you visited. Or called me. Texted.” He almost tacks a _ please _ onto the end of his plea. Almost.

Hal nods, quickly. “Okay. Yeah. I can do that. And - not to presume anything, of course! Or suggest anything illegal but. Uh. I’d… like it if you visited Sector V. Too. Actually.”

“You would?” Alex asks immediately, already thinking about what’d be an appropriately ‘Upper’ outfit from anything he’d be able to assemble just from what he’s got in his wardrobe back home. 

Hal nods, slowly, and Alex starts to smile just a little. “And,” Alex then adds, feeling brave and bold and like he’s not about to waste any of his chances, “And - if maybe I could bring some food with me from this side of the Wall, and we could go sit on a rooftop somewhere and maybe have a picnic… Would that be okay?”

Hal’s smiling too, now, lopsided and small. “Yeah.”

Alex slowly continues, “And… if when we’re on that roof, I wanted to hold your hand?”

“I think,” Hal says. “That… could be arranged. I-if you want to, that is!”

Alex grins at him and says, _ “Yes. _ Yes, I want to - if you do.”

Hal wordlessly turns his hand over on the bed so it’s palm up, and Alex takes it tentatively. Hal squeezes back, and the smooth slippery almost plastic surface of his hand still feels so warm and human in Alex’s, just for the way Hal clutches back. They grin at each other for a moment.

It’s quiet, the sort of soft secret quiet that exists only when two people are sharing something private. Alex feels nearly giddy with it. This, sitting here with Hal, is the best possible outcome of that mission that Alex could possibly have imagined. To be like this, reunited and together at the end of it all.

* * *

There’s exactly one place on the whole Ark, the famous Vintergard park in the wealthy White Hill district, where they spare the money to change the climate controls to _ winter _ in the old Northern hemisphere’s winter months, so there’s actual snow and people can go ice-skating. At the end of November the park is already crowded, but not as badly as in December, when they bring out the lights and trees for that popular Christian holiday.

After work, when Alex and Akira are going to the subway station on the 25th, which happens to be a Friday, a few weeks after the whole Children of Noah case - Olive is still coordinating clean-up concerning that organisation - Akira stops him before they can get inside the station and pulls out two tickets for entry to the ice-skating rink.

“It’s our birthday today,” she says, and looks expectantly at him.

Alex considers the fact that he can either say, _ no, it’s not, you’re just a clone. _ Or he could say… “Yeah. You’re right. I- thank you.”

They get on a train heading to White Hill instead of their home district, and after they’ve fought about who gets the window seat and who doesn’t, Alex says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t get you anything.”

“It’s okay,” Akira tells him, smugly sitting with her face pressed up to the window so she can watch the Ark whizz by, and Alex thinks, _ no it’s not. _ Not wasting any of his chances applies _ here, _ to this situation too - maybe especially in this situation. He’s already lost Akira once - losing her a second time because _ he himself _ pushed her away would be _ unbearable, _ he realises with a sudden sinking feeling, with a jolt of dread. They used to do _ everything _ together - homework, hobbies, rock band - but now…

Alex looks helplessly at Akira, who only has eyes for the scenery, always liable to getting distracted by cool shiny things (or small animals), and fuck. She’s the only sister he’s got, the only _ family _ he’s got.

He can’t lose her. She’s the reason he stayed at Neuron, the reason he decided to keep fighting. She’s still his twin - and this might be_ it, _ the answer to all their silences: they’re still them. There’s no one else out there who can be them, like this, trying to save the world together. 

-and also it’s their birthday tonight. It’s been _ ages _ since Alex last visited the Vintergard park.

When they arrive at the park, there’s only maybe a hundred people or so out there ice-skating, and they quickly hire some skates and helmets for themselves and a locker for their bags, and then they hit the ice.

Akira gingerly tries her way forward, determinedly being strategic and staying close to the rink wall so as to not fall and embarrass herself, while Alex sets his jaw and determinedly starts skating out toward the middle - and promptly stumbles and falls over. He gets up again quickly, and grins at Akira’s laughter as she skates closer to him.

“Still better than you!” she exclaims, grinning, and skates at Alex full-speed while he quickly darts out of the way, carefully keeping his balance while Akira gleefully barrels toward the wall and then turns in the nick of time, starting to skate backwards.

“Really?” Alex shouts, and is about to launch into some other story about who _ really _ used to be the ace here, when _ wham _ \- Akira skates over an abandoned hockey stick and falls over, flailing wildly.

Alex bursts into laughter, quickly skating away from her as Akira picks up the hockey stick and attempts to swat him with it. She gets up on her feet again, hockey stick in hand, and soon she’s not embarrassed anymore and Alex is no longer cautious - they just skate, chasing each other around the ice until Akira finally manages to topple him, and he goes down wheezing laughter.

“Oh fuck you,” Akira says in between laughter, poking him in the back with the hockey stick, while Alex mashes his face against the ice and gasps stupidly.

Akira ends up giving away the hockey stick to some kid after that, and then she goes off to find a bathroom, while Alex skates over to the side of the rink and pulls out his phone.

_ Happy birthday, _ Hal has texted him three hours ago.

Alex looks at their chatlog for a long moment, and then he simply replies, _ <3 _


End file.
